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Beauty of Chardonnay and The Game of the Blind Tasting
Blind tasting is probably one of the most favorite pastimes of any oenophile – especially when it is done in the non-competitive and non-intimidating manner, let’s say as a part of the fun evening with friends. While the words “blind tasting” sound simplistic, there are actually multiple options of it, all with the varying levels of difficulty. The most difficult type is a double blind tasting – you are just given a random glass of wine, and you have to identify the grape(s), the place, the vintage and possibly even the producer – this is the level at which the Court of Master Sommeliers plays, the ultimate challenge so to speak. The next level down would be a regular blind tasting – there would be at least one common factor between all the wines – let’s say, they all will be made out of Cabernet Sauvignon grape. Or they all might be the Bordeaux wines. While the level of a challenge is unquestionably lower that in the previous case, this type of tasting is great for assessment of the wine without an influence of the external factors, such as producer, label, region, etc. I also call it “an ultimate wine snobbery squasher”, as looking at the bottle of your supposedly favorite wine and realizing you just thought it was terrible (while you had no idea what was in your glass), is really a humbling experience.
My recent blind tasting experience was yet different. It was mostly the regular blind tasting, as it had a theme – Chardonnay, but it was also more limited, may be even “framed” is the right word – we knew all 10 Chardonnay wines which were present in the tasting, so it was not really wide open. And to make it more fun, we tried to identify each wine we tasted, and of course, look for the group’s favorite. To avoid crowding the table too much, we split the tasting into two sets of 5, and then we went over our notes to come up with our guesses – and then, of course, there was the moment of truth – when the bottles were revealed.
Chardonnay needs no introduction, of course. One of the most popular white grapes in the world, with literally every wine producing country having its stake in satisfying the thirst of Chardonnay lovers around the globe. I would dare to say that left alone, Chardonnay is great at expressing the terroir, the soil and climate of the area where it was growing, may be better than most of the other white grapes (may be Riesling can contest that). From the gravely soils of New Zealand to the expressive ‘gunflint” minerality of Chablis, biting acidity of Champagne, the round goodness of the mature Burgundy, to the warm and toasty expressions (sigh – hard to find it anymore) of California – Chardonnay rules them all. Our tasting was extremely representative of this world-wide phenomena – California, Long Island, Burgundy, Italy, Hungary, New Zealand and Australia were all present! Not a bad line up, huh?!
Okay so let me tell you about the wines. First, I will give you my notes, together with the guesses I made as we were going along. Once we completed the tasting of all 10 wines, we had a bit of time to think through and to complete our tasting cards to say what was what. And then of course, we unwrapped the bottles for the “moment of truth”.
Here are my notes as we went along with the tasting:
#1: Touch of butter, green apples, a bit harsh, tannins, young, lots of tannins. 7+/8-. Not sure what it can be.
#2: Minerality (gunflint) on the nose, green apple, great acidity, good balance. Classic. 8. Positive it is a Burgundy
#3: Fresh flowers on the nose, caramel, butterscotch, fig, pears, unusual, apples. 7/7+. I’m sure this is Long Island, no questions.
#4: Savory nose, oxidized, past prime, lost fruit. N/R. Considering the group, must be the Mersault (it is a well known and very unfortunate problem for the producers in Mersault – starting from some time in 2000, their wines lost ability to age and oxidize very quickly).
#5: Mint, rosemary, thyme on the nose, touch of oak, apples, very delicate profile, nice tannins, slightly off balance. 7+/8-. Australia?
#6: Butterscotch on the nose! Vanilla, amazing, very balanced, apples, vanilla, beautiful! 8. I’m quite convinced it is Hungary – I had this wine before and I believe this is the one.
#7: Beautiful nose! White fruit, lychee, spiciness on the palate, apples, delicate fruit. 8+. Not sure what it can be.
#8: Minerality, very unusual, herbs, – sorry for possibly putting some people off, but – a dog poop! (Yeah, I know, sounds crazy – but I’m speaking from experience as a dog owner), salty, herbal, acidic profile, more minerality on the palate. 8-. Again, not sure. Need to think about it.
#9: Candy on the nose, noticeable malolactic fermentation on the palate, and then acidity, acidity, acidity. 7. Not sure.
#10: Minerality, hint of butter, a bit too sweet, not enough acidity, not balanced. 6. No idea.
That was the end of the tasting. Now, we took a bit of time to compose our thoughts and come up with our “final answer”. As this was not a competition, it was also okay to consult each other. I was quite convinced about wines #3, #4 and #6, so it was making my task easier. Also my friend Zak was positive about #7 being Jermann, as he recently tasted that wine. The rest had to fall in place after some thinking. Now, the drum roll, please…
And the wines were:
1. 2006 Louis Latour Cortone-Charlemane, Burgundy
2. 2009 Bindi Quartz, Australia
3. 2010 Paumanok Grand Vintage Estate Chardonnay, Long Island, NY
4. 2007 Louis Latour Mersault-Charmes, Burgundy
5. 2008 S.C.E. Domaine Ramonet Chassagne-Montrachet, Burgundy
6. 2008 Kovács Nimród Winery Battonage Chardonnay, Hungary
7. 2011 Jermann W… Dreams … Chardonnay, Italy
8. 2008 Craggy Range Kidnappers Vineyard Hawkes Bay, New Zealand
9. 2008 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay, Napa Valley
10. 2008 Newton Unfiltered Chardonnay, Napa Valley
With a bit of knowledge and a bit of luck, I managed to get all the wines correctly with the exception of Bindi and Chassagne-Montrachet, which I got in reverse – it is interesting how I thought that #2 was a classic Burgundy, and it turned out to be an Australian wine. We also did a popularity vote, which was won by the Newton Chardonnay – quite awkward, as this was my least favorite wine. My favorite was probably the Jermann, but it is hard to pick a favorite from such a group of outstanding wines. It is also very interesting how different and unique the wines tasted, greatly demonstrating their terroir- and winemaking style-driven differences. Here are all the wines we tasted again, now in more detail for the labels:
And then, of course, there was food – lots of wonderful, home made dishes. It will take too much time to describe it all, so I will just leave you with the few pictures.
Now, I have a bit of the strangely sad part to share (nothing terrible, don’t worry). To complement all the wonderful Chardonnays, I brought a bottle of Sherry to add to our dessert list. 2011 Bodegas Alvear Pedro Ximemez de Añada Montilla-Moriles DO – the wine was excellent, more or less along the lines of what I would expect from Pedro Ximenez – considering the age, it was young and nicely balanced, both with sweetness and acidity. Where is the sad part? Take a look at the picture of that bottle:
Bodegas Alvear PX de Añada
See that sticker “RobertParker 100 pts”? Yes, this was the 100 points rated wine from Robert Parker!!!!! First time I tried anything rated 100 points by one of the biggest wine critics in the world!!! And I have nothing to write home about it. The wine was good – but I don’t remember it as being earth-shattering. Not sure what to take out of it, but surely feels strange. My only consolation is that I have another bottle of the same wine – and I will keep it for as long as I can before drinking it again – may be then I will be able to see what Robert Parker found in this wine.
That concludes my report on the wonderful game of Chardonnay tasting. We had a great time, and I think restricting the level of “blindness” in this tasting was a very interesting twist, making that blind tasting exercise even more enjoyable. Until the next time – cheers!
Latest Wine News Update
So many things are happening in and around of the world of wine that I had to share some of the latest updates with you.
Coravin, the maker of the Coravin™ Wine Access Technology, announced that the company recently finished development of the patented wine fingerprinting algorithm, which allows to uniquely identify all different wines made in the world. Using this algorithm, Coravin is planning to complete within the next 5-6 months the creation of the database of all the wines ever made. The next version of the popular Coravin™ Wine Access appliance will not only allow you to enjoy your prized wines without pulling the cork, but will also automatically identify year, grape(s) and producer of the wine, and provide a prediction as to for how long the wine will continue to evolve in the cellar. The new Coravin gadget will also serve as a deterrent against fake wine, as it will be able to tell you if the wine you are drinking doesn’t match information on the label. Coravin is accepting pre-orders now and expect to start shipping the new device in the first half of 2015 – make sure to order yours now as it is expected to be sold out of pre-orders within the first week.
Kanye West and Kim Kardashian’s wedding seems to be occupying the thoughts of everyone nowadays, and it seems that everybody want to be a part of it. I’m sure you heard that Burger King offered to provide all the food for Kanye and Kim’s wedding. Now Korbel, the famed producer of California Champagne, is offering not only to supply all the champagne for the wedding, but they also want to provide an unlimited access to any amount of champagne to Kim Kardashian for any occasions when she will feel a la Marylin Monroe and would want to take a bubbly bath.
You probably read recently that sales of Prosecco worldwide surpassed sales of French Champagne in terms of volume shipments. This news is not taken well by the bubbly greats, and based on the unconfirmed rumors, Krug Champagne, one of the most venerable producers, entered the talks with Zonin Prosecco about purchasing the company. It seems that Zonin’s witty TV commercials had a great effect on Krug’s top management, and they believe such an acquisition will be a great asset in the Krug’s portfolio. The exact amount of possible transaction is unknown.
Wine Advocate leaked that Robert Parker will be leaving the publication very soon. To replace him, based on the information from inside industry sources, it appears that Wine Advocate reached out to Ron Washam, the HoseMaster of Wine. The folks at Wine Advocate believe that addition of Ron Washam to the team will help to take the publication to the next level – Ron’s fiery wine reviews and skewering comments are expected to be especially well received by the aspiring audience of Chinese wine lovers. Stay tuned as this story is developing, more updates will be coming.
And the last update for today: in the usual spat between Manfred Krankl and TTB, the application for the newest label of Sine Qua Non Syrah, called Five Naked Women and A Cowboy, was rejected. TTB reviewers said that cowboy’s facial expression is too scarily detailed, and young wine drinkers might feel threatened be simply looking at the bottle. It is unknown if Manfred Krankl is planning to appeal or will decide to change the name of the wine to something else.
That’s all I have for you for today. Enjoy your day and cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage – #MWWC8 Last Reminder, Water into Wine – A Hoax, Corks and Twist Caps, and More Wine in Numbers
Meritage time!
Last weekend happened to be way too busy, so I had to skip the traditional wine quiz (no worries, it is coming up next Saturday). However, I have tons of interesting stuff around the vine and the web, so let’s get to it.
First and foremost – do you feel lucky? More precisely – do you feel wine-lucky? Then share your luck with the world – and you have only few days left to do it. Monthly Wine Writing Challenge #8 is almost over – the submission deadline is Sunday, March 23rd, thus you have only about 4 days left – start typing. So far 7 blog posts had been submitted – here is the post by the #MWWC8 host, Kara The Sweet Sommelier, summarizing current status.
Remember I wrote recently about The Miracle Machine, the device which promised to almost magically create wine out of water and a few ingredients? Turns out, The Miracle Machine was simply a hoax – but it had its purpose. The goal of that “project” was to bring attention to the organization which actually has a very important mission – providing drinkable water to more than billion (!) people in the world, who have no access to the clean and drinkable water. The name of the organization is “Wine into Water”, so playing on the “water into wine” was almost warranted here. I think the “increased awareness” mission was successfully accomplished – here you can find more information about both the hoax and the Wine into Water project in itself.
To cork or to screw top? That is the question! The debate is still ongoing, and the jury is still out – aesthetics, spoiled wine, proper wine aging, consumer education – all is at play in the back and force dialog about corks versus screw tops. Here are few interesting links for you. Here you can find a short video of the winemaker explaining why they switched back from the screw top to the cork. On the same subject, here is the link to the blog post at The Wine-o-scope, which critically analyzes findings of the research on the corks versus screw tops. To rephrase, I would say that this blog post is attacking the research findings – and I actually have a lot of problems with the number of statements in the blog post, which I expressed in the designated comments section. Anyway, it is well worth your time, so go read it.
Two more interesting pieces are more or less related to the subject of wine in numbers. The first one is about wine in Big Numbers – here you can find the link to the post about who is who in the US wine market. If you like the numbers, this post is for you. You will find out that three leading companies in US produced more than half of all the wines in 2013, and you will also find out that company number 1, Gallo, makes more wine than bottom 26 producers. Is this very important information for the oenophiles? Probably not. Is it fascinating? I would say yes. Again, take a look for yourself.
The last one for today is the article in the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) wine blog about Tasting Room Survey conducted by the SVB jointly with Wine Business Monthly, on the subject of profitability of the tasting room operations of the wineries – full report will be published in May. According to the survey, it appears that on average, 35% of the tasting room visitors don’t buy anything. Those people are called “melon squeezers” (read the article for full explanation of the term – in the nutshell, these are the people who touch the fruit but don’t buy it), and the article provides suggestions as to how to get rid of these annoying “melon-squeezers”. Even more fascinating than the article itself are the comments (there are lots of them), some of them suggesting that people must buy something if they visit the winery and that visitors have to buy the wine even if they don’t like it. To make it clear and simple, I’m peeved by this article and especially taken in conjunction with the comments, but I don’t want to end up with the huge rant in this blog post, so I will leave it up to you to read and come up with your own opinion (the rant might still be forthcoming).
And we are done for today. The glass is empty – but the refill is on its way. Cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage – Texas Wine Country Trip Contest, #MWWC7 Results, Robert Parker Addresses Wine Writers, Amphorae to the Rescue?
Meritage time!
Same as a last week, today’s Meritage doesn’t have the wine quiz answer portion – as there was no quiz last week. Thus let’s jump right away to the interesting stuff around the vine and the web.
Have you heard the expression “Everything is bigger in Texas”? Do you want to check it out for yourself? You have about 5 days to enter Wine Enthusiast’s contest to win a trip for 2 to the Texas Hill County. The winner of the prize will receive:
- Round-trip flights and transportation for two to Texas
- Up to 8-night accommodations at local B&Bs and winery accommodations in the Texas Hill Country
- Guaranteed visits at up to 12 wineries
- Select exquisite multi-course wine-and-food dinners
There are less than 21000 entries so far, so I think you have good chances! For all details and to enter the contest, please use this link.
#MWWC7 has concluded and we have the new champion – Kara of The Sweet Sommelier blog. This round was quite difficult, with the theme “devotion” putting many people on the offensive, but it still had a very good showing with 22 entries. You can read very interesting analysis by the SAHMelier, the host of #MWWC7, in her concluding post. And you can read the winning entry here. Now we will be eagerly awaiting the new theme for #MWWC8.
Last week, the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers took place in Napa. As you can judge from the name of the event, a lot of professional wine writers were in attendance. There were a number of interesting keynotes at the symposium, including one by none other but the Robert Parker (I don’t care what do you think of his ratings, but his influence over the wine world is indisputable). Alder Yarrow, who runs blog called Vinography and is a professional wine writer himself, recorded the full keynote and shared it in the blog post which you can find here. It is a bit long (slightly longer than an hour), but may be well worth your time.
Last note for today is all about experimental winemaking. As you know from the ancient history, an amphorae was one and only tool available to the winemakers thousands of years ago. Now, Andrew Beckham, a ceramics artist and high school teacher, started making amphorae and use them to make wines – and the results seems to be very encouraging, with the wines taking on the explicit earthiness and minerality trait. It is very early to tell when and if the amphorae will become a mainstream winemaking vessel – but nevertheless, it makes a very interesting read – here is the link to the article.
And we are done for today. The glass is empty – but the refill is on its way. Cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage – OTBN, #MWWC7 Time To Vote, The Art Of The Wine Label, State Liquor Law Changes and more
Meritage Time!
I had to skip the wine quiz last Saturday, as we are taking a family vacation this week, so you can enjoy your quiz break too. Therefore, let’s go directly to the interesting stuff around the vine and the web.
First and foremost – the upcoming Saturday, February 22nd, is Open That Bottle Night (OTBN). The concept of opening that special bottle of wine instead of hoarding it was invented by Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher, wine columnists for the Wall Street Journal – here is the link to one of the articles on the subject. The event is always taking place on the last Saturday in February – this is when you open and enjoy that special bottle of wine you were holding on to, not being able to find the right reason to pull the cork (or twist the top). As I think this is a great holiday for all oenophiles, I would like offer to you the following – if you open that special bottle of wine, will write a blog post about it and send me the link (through e-mail, comment, or Twitter), I will gladly re-blog it in my blog, and I will also add the link to the permanent page dedicated to the OTBN. So, what are you going to open?
Next up – #MWWC7 just concluded. The theme of Devotion was definitely challenging, but I think it led to a number of great entries. Here is the link to the SAHMMelier’s blog post, where you can see the list of all entries, and most importantly now, take a vote! Don’t miss it!
Have you heard of Sine Qua Non, the cult winery in California, making unique wines that are impossible to get? Did you know that every vintage of every wine produced by Sine Qua Non is released under a different label? And also each and every label is essentially a work of art, created by Manfred Krankl, the winemaker and owner at Sine Qua Non. To read more about these labels and Sine Qua Non wines, here is a link to the very interesting article at Wine Spectator – I highly recommend that you will read it.
I would assume that you know (or at least you know now) that States of the United States are in charge of individual laws regarding alcohol sales and distribution in those states. This leads to the situation where people’s access to alcohol in the neighboring states can be dramatically different (for instance, until recently, sales of alcohol were prohibited on Sundays in Connecticut – as the result, the people had to take their dollars to the neighboring New York state). The good thing is that in many states, the state laws are slowly changing to the benefit of the wine consumers (don’t take it for granted – some states are still trying to change it around and backward). Here is a very interesting article from the Wine Business publication, where you can learn about some of those changes in the works.
Before we part, I want to bring to your attention two more articles on the subject of Italian wines, both are quite controversial. Ten years ago, the movie called Mondovino made Michele Rolland and Robert Parker quite upset. Now, the new movie called “Natural Resistance”, made by the same director Jonathan Nossiter is talking about natural wines in Italy, also taking an aim at the Italian DOC system and overall approach to quality – here is the link to the article on the wine-searcher where you can get more details.
It turns out that people at Gambero Rosso, one of the leading Italian wine rating publications, are not the big fans of the natural wines. A blanket statement about “natural wines been bad wines which will give you a headache” doesn’t sound right coming from the organization which should simply embrace and promote best Italian wines. So it is not surprising that Italian natural wine producers have an issue with Gambero Rosso – for more details, here is the link to the wine-searcher article.
That’s all I have for you for today, folks. The glass is empty – but the refill is on its way. Cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, Wine Crimes, #MWWC6 Last Chance, Wine Books, New World’s Most Planted Grape
Meritage time!
First, let’s start with the answer for the wine quiz #87, how well do you know your wines.
In the quiz, you were supposed to identify 8 different wines/wineries using the pictures of the top foils of the bottles. Here are the answers:
1. White Cottage Ranch, a winery in Napa Valley (looks like it might be closed now 😦 )
2. Burgess Cellars – winery in Napa Valley, making great Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and other wines
3. St. Francis – winery in Sonoma, producing wonderful Zinfandel and other wines
4. Lopez de Heredia, one of the classic Rioja producers from Spain
5. Talullah, a boutique winery in Napa
6. No Girls, an extremely limited production of Syrah and Grenache from Walla Walla Valley
7. Jordan, great producer from Sonoma, probably best known for their Cabernet Sauvignon
Bonus: Casa Burmester, a boutique Port producer from Portugal, also making wonderful dry wines
And here are the same pictures, only now you can see what is what:
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- 1. White Cottage Ranch
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- 2. Burgess Cellars
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- 3. St. Francis
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- 4. Lopez de Heredia
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- 5. Talullah
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- 6. No Girls
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- 7. Jordan
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- Bonus: Casa Burmester
As I said many times before, this was a very tough quiz – people generally don’t pay attention to the bottle tops. In this round, Zak correctly identified 6 wines out of 8 ( including the bonus), so he is the winner of this quiz and he gets the distinguished prize of unlimited bragging rights. Well done!
Now, to the interesting stuff around the vine and the web!
As wine keeps growing in popularity, it becomes the subject of crime with much higher frequency. An excellent article from Mike Veseth at Wine Economist is talking about some of the latest wine crimes, where wine was stolen in a very sophisticated fashion. I like the “CSI Fine Wine” designation used for the article – definitely an interesting story to read.
Have you written about the wine mysteries in your life? Mystery is a theme for Monthly Wine Writing Competition #6, hosted by Jeff, a.k.a The Drunken Cyclist. The submission deadline is Monday, January 13th. You can read about all the rules in this post – but don’t delay, there are only few days left!
Do you like wine books? I personally do, but I don’t read them nearly enough – I read more blogs than the books lately. Nevertheless, here is an excellent list from W. Blake Gray, where he is talking about 9 of the latest wine books, all sounding very intriguing and worth reading, like “The Billionaire Vinegar”, which had been on my radar for a while. Did you read any of the books in the list? What do you think?
Last but not least – some wine numbers, for all of you, number junkies out there. The Drinks Business publication just published a very interesting article regarding the most planted grapes in the world. It appears that the most planted grape in the world as of now is nothing less than… (cue drum roll) … Cabernet Sauvignon! And hated/loved Merlot now is a close second – quite a change from Airen and Grenache being in the lead for a while. For more of the interesting interesting data, here is your link to the original article.
That’s all I have for you for today, folks. The glass is empty – but refill is on its way. Until the next time – cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #87: How Well Do You Know Your Wines, Part 2
The Wine Quiz series is not meant to intimidate. The whole idea here is to have fun and learn something new. When answering the questions, it is fully encouraged to use all available sources of information, including Google or any other search engine. There are no embarrassing answers – the most embarrassing thing is not giving it a try…
Welcome to the weekend and your new wine quiz!
As I skipped the traditional Meritage, I would like to start with the answer to the wine quiz #86, How well do you know your wines. In the quiz, you were given the pictures of the top of the wine bottles, and you were supposed to name the producer or wine based on that picture of that foil top. Here are the answers (and below are the pictures, now with the producer/wine names):
1. Laetitia, the winery in California producing Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines
2. Cambria, the winery in California, also producing Chardonnay and Pinot Noir wines
3. Wente, large winery in California Livermore valley
4. Turley, California Zinfandel and Petite Sirah specialist (however, the picture was taken from the bottle of Turley The Label Cabernet Sauvignon)
5. La Rioja Alta, one of the best Rioja producers in Spain
6. Peter Michael, California winery producing great Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon
Bonus: Satrapezo, a great wine made out of Saperavi grape by Marani winery in Georgia – I understand that this is a very obscure wine for many, this is why it was set as a bonus question.
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- 1. Laetitia
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- 2. Cambria
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- 3. Wente
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- 4. Turley
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- 5. La Rioja Alta
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- 6. Peter Michael
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- Bonus: Satrapezo
Talking about the results – this was a tough quiz, with a few people being able to properly identify Wente, and then some guesses for the #2 being Cline – this is close, but incorrect. The “C” on the Cline bottles is done slightly in the different style.
I still like this quiz, so here comes round number 2 – hopefully you can do better! Here we go:
1. 
2. 
3. 
4. 
5. 
6. 
7. 
And the bonus question:
B. 
Good luck, enjoy the quiz and your weekend! Cheers!
Playing Wine Secret Santa
A few weeks ago, Jeff, a.k.a. the drunken cyclist, came up with the idea – how about making whole bunch of people happy and excited, just in time for the holidays, by exchanging a few bottles of wine – in secret. As the typical “secret Santa” game goes, we (all participants) have to send one or two bottles of wine to someone – of course nobody has any idea who is sending wine to whom, as all the recipients are set at random. We also were asked to include a little note about ourselves and how did we chose what wine to send – for all detailed rules and regulations you can look here.
I really liked the idea from the very beginning – being able to share the wine with someone and an anticipation of the surprise of the wine someone have chosen for you was definitely exciting. As the idea was discussed further, both in Jeff’s blog and in the e-mail, the main problem surfaced. Legally, you have to have a liquor license in US in order to send wine to someone. The creative ideas were exchanged – ask winery or a store to ship the wine you selected to your recipient; print the label at home and drop the box at UPS or FedEx – they will not ask the questions; ship the wine via US mail – but don’t tell them you have anything liquid inside (this is what I did). With this main problem out of the way, the next key question was: what to send?
Choosing the wine for such a secret mission is very far from simple (sorry, laugh all you want – we, wine snobs, like to complicate things). You want the wine to match the preferences of your recipient. Okay, so may be I’m complicating things for no reason – most of the participants should have a blog, and in that blog they probably talk about wine, so it should be not that difficult, right? Hmm, let’s see.
Finally I got the e-mail – my recipient was Chef Mimi. I went to Chef Mimi blog, which boasts beautiful pictures of food (I’m a sucker for the beautiful food pictures) and tons of recipes. I read the About section, I searched for the word “wine” in the Chef Mimi’s blog – and I couldn’t find any clues to what she might like! So I put my thinking cap on (just kidding – no cap – I just stare blindly into the computer screen). I went through Chem Mimi’s blog posts, thinking – what would I pair with this or that dish? Finally – yes, I got it – Riesling would be one, because it would perfectly pair with these sliders, and, and, and … a Merlot, middle-of-the-road-and-often-great red wine? I have a few bottles of this great Riesling, of course with the name only Oliver can pronounce, 2007 Eitelsbacher Karthauserhofberg Riesling Kabinett Mosel-Saar-Ruwer (I talked about Spatlese from the same producer in this post, but I chose to send a Kabinett). And for the Merlot – as I live close to Long Island, and I recently was on the trip there and immensely enjoyed 2005 Estate Merlot from Jamesport, this was kind of a no-brainer decision for the wine which is unique and different. Done and done. The rest is history – you can read about it in the Chef Mimi’s post.
A few days after, my wines arrived.
Inside the box, there was a handwritten note from @NewfD90, explaining the preference for the Italian wines hence the selection sent to me – Sangiovese from California and Primitivo from Salento “just for fun”, as the note said.
I decided to start with 2010 Menhir Salento Quota 31 Primitivo Salento IGT (14% ABV). I have a limited experience with Primitivo wines. While Primitivo is a close relative of Zinfandel, and Zinfandel makes some of my most favorite wines, the Primitivo wines I taste in the past were nothing close to the Zinfandel, and shall we say it, not that great. So you can imagine that my expectations were not that high. Open the bottle, pour, sniff, swirl, sip – wow, this is great! I have to honestly say that this was the best Primitivo I ever tasted – and outside of the Primitivo category, this was simply an excellent wine. Ripe raspberries profile on the nose, dark dense fruit on the palate, with more raspberries and blackberries, good round tannins, overall very balanced. Medium to long finish. A very pleasant wine overall.
Cosentino is the well known producer from Napa Valley in California, making a wide range of wines from Chardonnay to Cabernet Sauvignon to Zinfandel. This was my first experience with Cosentino Sangiovese. This 2011 Cosentino Sangiovese Il Chiaretto Napa County (15.5% ABV) opened up nicely with the nose of leather and smoke, generally resembling Pinot Noir a lot more than any Sangiovese wines I tasted in the past. On the palate it showed touch of tobacco and licorice, with a bit too much of a sweet fruit and then black pepper in the back. It also showed some noticeable tannins. What this wine was lacking was balance and harmony – all the components stuck out on their own. I decanted some amount of the wine, but 3 hours in decanter didn’t help it. I really tried to fall in love with this wine, by tasting it little by little over the next four days – to no avail. While the wine was changing day to day, and it was still drinkable on the day 4, it didn’t come to greatness. I had much better Sangiovese wines from Temecula valley, where the grape quite popular, so may be Napa Valley is just not the place for this grape to shine. But – tasting new wines is always a fun challenge, so I”m glad I had this experience.
That concludes the Secret Wine Santa report. This was definitely fun, so I would like to thank Jeff for coming up with the idea and I’m already looking forward to the next year’s Secret Wine Santa project. Hmmm, that’s a long wait, isn’t it? May be we need to extend the idea to the Secret Wine Admirer? That would be awesome! Cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #86: How Well Do You Know Your Wines?
The Wine Quiz series is not meant to intimidate. The whole idea here is to have fun and learn something new. When answering the questions, it is fully encouraged to use all available sources of information, including Google or any other search engine. There are no embarrassing answers – the most embarrassing thing is not giving it a try…
Welcome to the weekend and your new wine quiz!
Similar to the last week, today’s quiz will be visual again. And I have to tell you upfront, that I can’t take the full credit for it – I got the idea from Ryan Sorrell, an artist who is creating pictures from the top foils of the wine bottles (take a look at his web site here). Ryan posted this picture on twitter and asked people to guess what wine it belongs to. I know that many people pay attention to the wine labels – but how many people pay attention to the top of the foil, while they are cutting that foil out? Let’s find out! Below are 6 different foil tops – you will need to identify the wine producer behind each one of those tops (note – click on the pictures to zoom).
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2. 
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6. 
And the bonus one (as this one is harder than the others):
Good luck, enjoy the quiz and your weekend! Cheers!
A Bit of Everything for Sunday – Wine Review, a Fun Video and Wine Infographics
It is Sunday, and I have rather a hodge-podge mix for you here. I have a few things a wanted to share, and while they are all not connected (or may be they are), I think it all make sense in the format of Sunday time. Here we go.
The first one belongs to the Daily Glass category, which is intended for the simple daily wines I drink, well, daily – and I’m always looking for value. This time, the search for value lead me to Kirkland Signature Médoc.
I love value wines. Of course we can remove the word “value” from the previous sentence – yes, I’m an oenophile, also often known as a wine snob. At the same time, I think the word “value” is important. “Value wine” means you get disproportional amount of pleasure compare to the amount of money you invest into that bottle of wine. A €1.29 Portuguese red and white are ultimate examples of the value wines. Trader Joe’s carries a lot of outstanding value wines at $5.99 or less. I remember amazing Montepulciano wines at $5 per bottle I was buying by the caseload. Well, La Rioja Alta Vina Ardanza at $30 will also perfectly fit the bill, but this is the whole other story. Okay, I’m sure you got my point.
So here comes Costco. Value is a whole premise of huge warehousing operation of Costco’s chain, and of course it extends into the wines. To deliver ultimate value (supposedly, at least), Costco even has its own brand, called Kirkland.
When I visit Costco which has a wine section (not all the warehouses have it – the one I usually go to does not), I always have to explore it. And yes, I’m looking for value. This time around, I decided to extend my quest for value to the ultimate heights, and got a bottle of Kirkland Signature Médoc, which I found for $8.99 at Costco in Massachussets.
Médoc wine for $8.99? How good can that be? Finding palatable wines from Bordeaux (not even talking about good wines) at that price is mostly a mission impossible. And this wine is not even designated as a whole Bordeaux, it is Médoc AOC, which theoretically means the grapes should be better- but again, at under $10? Well, let’s see if Costco can actually do it.
2011 Kirkland Signature Médoc AOC (13.5 ABV, $8.99, 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot) had dark garnet red color in the glass. The nose didn’t exhibit much of the fruit. On the palate, there was a hint of raspberries, and may be a whiff of tobacco, otherwise the wine was rather flat, lacking the mid palate weight and substance. Drinkability: 6. This was the wine without sense of place – you know you are drinking wine, but otherwise it completely fails to solicit an emotional response. Was that the worst wine I ever had? No. Was that the wine I would recommend to someone? No. Was that the wine I would ever buy again? No. Can you buy this wine if you must have Bordeaux on the table? Yes. Would that wine benefit from aging or aggressive decanting? Maybe, but we will need to establish it first. Is it possible that you actually might like this wine? Of course! And I would love to hear from you if you do.
Next up – the Holiday Dinner Party video. No, this is not the wine video, but instead, it is a great video dedicated to all of you cooks out there. This was sent to me by a friend, an avid cook herself (if the recipe doesn’t require at least a stick of butter, she is not making it). With the holidays, and all the festivities, friends and families getting together, I’m sure all of you can relate to what you are about to hear. But enough words – here is the video:
And last, but not least for today – the wine infographics. I’m an information junkie, and I love processing of the lists of all sorts. Continuing the theme of value wines, below is a very interesting infographics presenting 10 great wines for $10. Well, yes, “great” is a very personal characteristic, but it is always fun to align the opinions and see what the other person thinks – definitely a fun for me. To be honest, I don’t remember tasting any of the wines below. So please take a look, and of course, comment away – I’m very curious about your opinion.
That’s all I have for you for today! Enjoy the rest of your weekend and cheers!
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